Morning journal and courier., 1887-12-26
EVILS THAT MENACE THE FAMILY
As AnalYzed Before the Evangelical
 AIlEaTacR

As AnaIYZed Before the Evangelical Alliance.
 From the Washington Evening Star.l
 In the meeting of Thursday, December Sth, Mr Justice Harlan was introduced as the presiding officer, and without any formal speech announcedsthe subject of the first pa pers, "Perils to the Family" which he said was an important one to the nation and to the individual.
 He then introduced the Rev. S. w. Dike, of Auburndale, Mass, who said that the present time was putting the moral forces of the country to the test. Better churches and better schools were needed he said but at the foundation of all the welfare of the fam- ily was important. He spoke of the divorce laws and the prevalence of divorce in various States of the country. la fifteen States the rate of divorce to the marriages celebrated had been ascertained, and the percentage all the way from five to twelve and fourteen per cent The latter he said was the per centage in California. He called attention to the decline in the number of children in families, and said that no physician astribu ted this low birth rate to decline in the re- productive functions. The statistics show, the speaker said, that foreign-born women have larger families than the native women.
 The evil of divorce has increased rapidly during the past twenty years, and in some
 
 ago The high rate not alone applies to the cities, but to the country districts. Even in intelligent New England the rate is very high. This evil of divorce is sapping the welfare of the family, and then in addition is the increase of disorderly marriages and immoral living. The speaker maintained that the present marriage laws were made quate, and compared the security given with that given by the real estate laws to the property of women. The laws of marriage afford no such security, and in a large num- Der of States no record is made of mar riages, and no papers legally recorded are re- quired. The divorce laws are very elastic and vary in the different States. In some States divorce can be had by one party to the marriage without the consent of the other. Congress has made marriage laws for Utah, but neglected Dakota and the capital of the country. In the whole matter of family laws he thought that this country was where it was fifty years ago. The speaker then considered the perils of the country in rela- tion to social order.
 He maintained that the family was not only the germ of all social institutions, but the abiding element. No other factor enters into industrial prosperity more largely than the home, and the study of the family af lords the foundation of all social questions. But it is this institution he said of which we are so careless in our laws and practice. The strain upon our institutions tells more strongly upon the family than upon any oth- CT social relation. He pointed out that the neglect of the family was an injury to the entire life of the nation. He maintained that the advancement of home instruction had not kept pace with that of the church, and he cited in illustration the growth and efficiency obtained in the Sunday school work. The danger arose from giving to the Sunday school the entire work and the neg lect of what should be done in the family. The church and the Sunday school seemed to be relied upon, he said, for social reform. Closing the saloons, he thought, would not